“Modernisation of the Chinese PLA: From Massed Militia to Force Projection”’ encapsulates the evolution of the PLA from its inception, through the tumultuous period of the Cultural Revolution on to the Four Modernisation era of China’s overall transformation. The Changing political scenario and impact of globalization had a significant influence in the revision of the PLA doctrine. This has been covered leading to study of the War Zone Campaign concept and its impact on technology development and equipment profile of the PLA.

China’s Revolution in Military Affairs is of particular significance as the PLA transforms its manpower to fight a future war in a high-tech environment with its military forces dynamically networked. The Book also looks at how China has shifted emphasis from military operations to non-military operations as a pre-emptive option employing Cyber Warfare, Computer Network Operations and Information Warfare with a high degree of deniability built around it. In analyzing the War Zone Campaign concept the author has brought out the deployment of all elements of national power in the non-contact phase of the campaign to elicit a political response from the opponent which may not require the employment of military forces for a contact battle if the opponent submits to the non-military coercion.

The Book also covers in fair detail the modernisation of the armed forces of China. The focus is on the augmentation of the equipment profile of the Navy, Air Force and Second Artillery Corps. These are the forces that China is planning to deploy in a contingency of “force extension” in the near term and “force projection” at a later stage. Nuclear weapons have been an essential backdrop in the strategic domain of Chinese progression to a credible power status. This too, has been substantively covered.
China has always denied that its growth is a threat to any nation. However, the neighbours have envisioned the existence of a plausible ‘China Threat’. This has been comprehensively discussed in the book too.

In the final analysis the book hypothesis the employment of the PLA in two likely scenarios in a regional limited war contingency. The author opines that the global economic environment and the technological advances in the military field warrants a dynamic approach to evolving a threat analysis. Rigid mathematical models and mind-sets will result in serious reverses.

Contents

Recounting the Evolution of the Chinese PLA • Party-PLA Relations • Chinese Military Strategy — Evolution of its Defense Doctrine and the Defense Budget

Science and Technology and the Defense Industry • China’s Revolution in Military Affairs • Modernization of the Chinese Armed Forces